Commentary

Yaakov Jaffe provides an ideological argument against including ideology in our Chumashim.

There’s a miniature kaf at the beginning of the parashah. As Gabriel Slamovits explains, what the diminished letter says about how Abraham mourned for Sarah fits well with a prominent teaching of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l.

Seth Farber explores the Rav's 1932 in local Boston historical context.

Tovah Lichtenstein responds to and critiques Zev Eleff's counter-history, "What if Rav Aharon Had Stayed?"

Judah Kerbel discusses why we say an abbreviated Hallel on the last six days of Pesah and contemplates what that says about the war in Israel; self-defense is a must, as is gratitude toward God, but we also hold space for the losses on the other side.

Ben Frogel reviews a new volume that introduces thirty-five different Jewish approaches to virtue ethics and attempts to link them into one continuous tradition.

Ayelet Wenger weaves together the personal, historical and exegetical in advance of reading Sefer Shemot.

The dynamic conversation continues with three letters to the editor widening our perspective on Torah u-Madda. Steve Gotlib grapples with the challenges of living Torah u-Madda in the real world; Ezequiel Antebi Sacca adds a Sephardic view from Argentina; and Eugene Korn adds insight to the Jewish view on Christianity.

Chaim Trachtman shows how a careful examination of debates between Shammai and Hillel challenge our preconceived notions about them.

In his review of Jessica Roda's For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy through the Arts in the Digital Age, Ben Rothke considers the ways Orthodox women have dealt with halachic obstacles a claim a space for themselves as performers using new and social media.